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TBH, How much space to give them?

So I need a little clarification as I am currently managing my very first TBH and a friend of mine is coaxing me to be more aggressive than I care to be. I only took one class months ago and am in my 6th month of beekeeping. I originally bought a nuc and started a hive in the TBH.

I remember hearing that you should give the hive one or two empty bars at either end of the brood so the actual hive is only say 10 or 12 bars with a cap bar. The remaining bars lie in wait until the beehive grows. My friend says I should open the cap and let them have all the bars the full length of the hive (4ft). The reason for the debate is that the hive size has not grown much, nor has there been much honey to harvest.

Re: TBH, How much space to give them?

if they arent drawing out new comb then why give them all that space? I would try to control the space you give them so you monitor the growth - if the nectar flow kicks in and they start drawing comb then you can adjust. If you give them the remaining 3+ feet then you MAY run into issues with them drawing the comb crosswise across more frames than wanted leading to more problems. Id just give them a few bars and add more as needed.

Re: TBH, How much space to give them?

I started my first hive fully open 4 ft. I had very little comb problems.

If you open your hive every week you will catch your cross combs before they are a problem.

The second hive I used a divider board at 2.5 ft. This hive is 5ft though.

I would also add new bars to the middle(of 4ft hive) to ensure a nice straight comb, since it is built between two nice straight combs, it will be straight. I have combs from the edge and they are curvy. Using the same method(checkerboarding) in the honey combs works good too.

As far as not much happening, it seems as if there isn't anything producing resources for the bees to use, so they slow down. My hives are not doing much at all right now.

Re: TBH, How much space to give them?

They'll fill whatever empty bars you give them, regardless if it's two at a time or twenty.
A couple of bars at each end of the hive won't slow them down. They grow by how much
resources are coming into the hive and how much brood they can care for and how fast
they can build combs. Open space doesn't limit their speed of growth until they run out
of space. As long as you have any empty bars you're good.

Re: TBH, How much space to give them?

"...checkerboarding..."

Uh, actually you are not checkerboarding -- you are just opening up the honey storage area or opening the brood nest, depending on where you add the bar(s).

The term "checkerboarding" is a specific method for managing Lang hives that is done in early spring to manage swarming. Checkerboarding cannot be done in a conventional TBH, since there is no overhead honey storage like there is in a Lang hive. So using the term in this context is confusing and misleading.

Re: TBH, How much space to give them?

"Checkerboarding" existed long before lang hives. The act of one in, one out is checkerboarding. (whether or not we are even talking about bees) One and only one definition of this slang word seems to be the only confusion here. This forum seems to miss the questions raised by the original post and focus on precise definitions of words used to help. So until there is a new word which means to do it(checkerboard) in a TBH horizontally, I will say checkerboard.

Re: TBH, How much space to give them?

Who's hive is it? Yep yours... do what YOU want.
I have a 4' TBH. My bees like to work on 4-5 bars at a time, but finish them to completion. At any given time, I make sure they have 4-5 new bars before the follower board.
I believe I have 28 bars plus the follower board (wide open) at this time. Yeah it's at capacity.

Re: TBH, How much space to give them?

But isn't it easier for them to cool, heat or defend a hive if they aren't responsible for big, wide-open, unused space? Looks like I'm in the minority here, but since my hive was only established in April, I started them off in a reduced area and have kept it that way so far. If they need more room, I think their comb-building will be the clue.

Re: TBH, How much space to give them?

I have a clarification to my previous statement. Lots of room is not a good thing all the time...
Everything brooks said is applicable when starting a hive, and later on.
But--- When you get down the road a bit remember this... When there is a lot of empty comb that the bees are not using, that is when the wax moths will show you their destructive power. Since the bees are not policing the extremities, the pests can get a serious foothold. I just lost a hive for that exact reason. Lesson learned.
I should have put in a divider board to fit the number of bees in the hive, and taken out most of the unused comb.